A 29-year-old former CIA worker and current defense contractor employee has come forward as the source of the National Security Agency leaks to The Guardian newspaper:

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong, he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of Americas most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the worlds most secretive organisations  the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, but I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.

It said in the article he selected documents and gave them to journos to decide what is appropriate. Not sure which docs he specifically meant. Stated that the public should decide the direction this should take.

161
posted on 06/09/2013 2:17:30 PM PDT
by seeker41
(Take back your country before it is too late-STOP islamic expansion in the USA remove zero)

The problem that I see with PRISM (if I understand it right) is NOT that the government will prosecute you in an Article III court with the information gained, but it's that the Organs will possess enormous amounts of information about you that can be given to your enemies or can be used for Fourth Branch (EPA, OSHA, IRS, etc) harassment at will.

They won't NEED a warrant to ruin your life, and for a lot of people who are NOT guilty of any crimes, ruining their life will be punishment enough for opposing The One.

I don’t think China will touch him. He actually gave the Premier a five-star moment in Palm Springs. Whenever the President brought up cyber warfare....the Premier just grinned and said his people were being gleened for phone-calls and email....any action by his folks was simply in retaliation for what the NSA was conducting.

This guy will quietly find a Chinese businessman one day...who will offer him a job, and a safe situation in China. He will never step foot on US soil ever again.

India, who does not cow tow to any one. Remember India stayed steadfastly neutral during the cold war. And he can disappear among the hundreds of thousands of Americans, British and others living in India. Hong Kong is too dangerous because China is brutal & ruthless.

172
posted on 06/09/2013 2:22:51 PM PDT
by entropy12
(Even tho Obama is now a lame duck, with 2014 House majority, he will be a dangerously socialist!)

Laz, so lets say you came across classified docs that revealed in the next month a high profile faked terrorist attack would be set off in NYC (or pick a city) where 100s would die and untold severe injuries would also result. Thereafter, the Gov would enact more severe restrictions on freedom via laws, you wouldnt leak?

In a court of law, hypotheticals are disallowed. Further, what you have offered me is a Hobson's Choice, in which both options are unacceptable.

I will humor you anyways.

I couldn't break my oath. My integrity is vital to my entire life.

I would IMMEDIATELY quit in protest, IMMEDIATELY relocate to another country, and IMMEDIATELY renounce my citizenship. I would even try to thwart the plot.

But I would not defy my oath of secrecy.

See the difference? I would forever work against such an evil government; I would warn the world about her. But I would not betray MYSELF by breaking an oath. Yes, people would die. That, I would have to live with, and it would be VERY tough.

I will work strenously to avoid ever being placed in this Hobsons Choice of a position. I can understand someone making a different choice than I would.

CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen - “Our target is a British national - Simon Ross, a reporter. I want all his phones, his BlackBerry, his apartment, his car, bank accounts, credit cards, travel patterns - I want to know what he’s going to think before he does. Every dirty little secret he has, and most of all we want the name and real-time location of his source. This is NSA priority level 4. Any questions?”

They probably can do it ~ but if they say they have a warrant for telephonic connectivity information for a certain period that warrant will have come from a FISA court. So, prove that’s not what they had.

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